Play and Win @ Wellycon!

Play and Win is a relatively new event at Wellycon, but we’re pretty excited about it. A selection of games are provided to us for you to play, and then afterwards you have a chance to win the game you played!

Introduced by the Moors, azulejos (originally white and blue ceramic tiles) were fully embraced by the Portuguese when their king Manuel I, on a visit to the Alhambra palace in Southern Spain, was mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the Moorish decorative tiles. The king, awestruck by the interior beauty of the Alhambra, immediately ordered that his own palace in Portugal be decorated with similar wall tiles. As a tile-laying artist, you have been challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora.

In the game Azul, players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Bears vs Babies is a card game in which you build handsome, incredible monsters who go to war with horrible, awful babies.

The shared deck of cards consists of bear parts (and other monster parts) and baby cards. When you draw a part, you use it to build a monster for yourself; when you draw a baby, it goes in the center of the table. When babies are provoked, they attack, and anyone who has fewer monster parts than the number of attacking babies loses their monster; everyone with more parts than babies defeats this infantile army and scores.

Peace has come at last to the great Bunny Kingdom! Lead your clan of rabbits to glory by gathering resources and building new cities across the land!

Draft cards and pick the right ones to position your warrens on the 100 squares of the board, provide resources to your colonies, build new cities to increase your influence, and plan your strategy to score big at the end of the game. Settle in lakesides or fields to collect water and grow carrots, gather mushrooms in the green forest, and climb the highest mountains to discover rare and precious resources… Secretly rally rabbit lords and recruit skillful masters to make your cities and resources even more valuable at the end of the game.

After each turn, your groups of contiguous warrens grant you points depending on the cities and different resources they include. The game ends after 4 turns, and the player with the most points wins the game.

Burger Up is a card matching puzzle game about the art of burger making. Fill orders, earn prestige and be the best burger chef around!

Players strive to become the most prestigious restaurant by building the biggest Burgers and by using the best ingredients.

Players take turns, which consist of four phases: the Market phase where players may purchase ingredients from the market, the Building phase where players place up to 3 ingredients on their burgers, the Burger Up! phase where players may score their burgers if they satisfy an order and the clean-up phase where players draw back up to 4 cards.

The game ends when no more Order cards can be revealed. A bonus is awarded to the Chef who built the most burgers and then the winner is determined, based on who has earned the most coins.

In the puzzle game Dimension six task cards are laid out each round, with these cards dictating how the balls in the game should be stacked on top of one another and side to side. These challenges aren’t easy as some colors shouldn’t touch one another.

Fast puzzle-solving is important, but more than that in the end whoever solves the most of these difficult tasks wins.

Dragonfire is a cooperative deck-building game set within the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Players choose from a number of races — from dwarf to elf, half-orc to human — while assuming the quintessential roles of cleric, rogue, fighter, and wizard. Equipped with weapons, spells, and magic items, players begin their adventure along the famed Sword Coast, then expand to other locales across the Forgotten Realms, such as Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter, and Waterdeep in future expansions. Along the way, players level up their characters, opening access to additional equipment, feats, and more. Join the quest, and build your own legend!

Duplik, first published as Portrayal (then Identik) is a funny, fast-paced, family and party game that tests each player’s ability to describe, draw, and evaluate wacky images.

In each round of Duplik, one player (the Art Director) describes a unique and utterly bizarre image while the other players (the Artists) attempt to draw the image based solely on the Art Director’s description.

Once time is up, Artists trade drawings and the ten hidden criteria for the image are uncovered. It’s up to each Artist to decide whether the drawing he or she is judging meets the criteria and receives points.

Foodfighters is a fun and light two-player battle game – each player controls a team of foods trying to win a food fight against the opposing team. First player to knock out three matching foods from the other team wins!

You and your opponent each control a faction of fighting foods. On your turn, you can move a Foodfighter, or roll dice to attack an opponent (that your Foodfighter is thinking about and that is in reach), or roll for Beans (cash). After that you can spend your Beans to buy awesome gear from the store or Power cards that are unique to your team. Then it’s the other guy’s turn. Keep going until you’ve knocked out three of a kind on your opponent’s team, and you’ve won!

In Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne, which uses the game systems from Cosmic Encounter, you and your friends each command one of the Great Houses of Westeros, pitting iconic characters against each other in epic battles and schemes. Negotiate, bluff, forge alliances, threaten your rivals — use every tool at your disposal to spread your influence, establish supremacy, and claim the ultimate prize: the Iron Throne!

In more detail, each turn centers around the resolution of an encounter between two players. These encounters can result in hostilities, startling conquests, and the spread of influence, or they can result in the formation of temporary alliances. And though only two players in any encounter will be the “active” players, your friends might offer you their support — or turn around and offer it to someone else.

The encounters of The Iron Throne resolve quickly, but they are full of opportunities for cunning strategy, devious intrigues, and brokered alliances. Each features a challenger and a defender, and after these players assign characters to resolve the encounter on the behalf of their Houses, other players may offer their support to either side. In this way, an encounter that starts as a contest between the Lannisters and the Starks may escalate and draw in the support of the Tyrells or other Houses.

JASK is a dynamic game that can be played individually or in teams. At the start of the game, and each round, a card is selected. Players will have one or more counters positioned on different letters on the board. All players/teams have one minute to think of as many answers for the selected question using a letter on which one of their counters is positioned. The winner is the first person / team to get all 8 counters home.

In Jungle Speed, you must rely on your keen sense of observation and quick reflexes. It requires a steady hand — which can be hard to maintain during the many fits of maniacal laughter! The wooden Totem sits in the middle of the table, waiting for the player with the fastest reflexes to snatch it up and win the game.

Each player is dealt a hand of cards. In order to win you must be the first player to get rid of all of your cards. Each turn, all of the players reveal one of their cards. If two cards are identical, those players must make a grab for the Totem. The faster player then gives their cards to their unfortunate adversary.

To add to the difficulty, certain cards are almost identical, which can trick a hapless player into grabbing the Totem by mistake — a grave error. Other cards force all players to make a grab at once, change the method of play, or otherwise add to the difficulty.

1840: In Kanagawa, the great bay of Tokyo, the Master Hokusai decided to open a painting school to share his art with his disciples. You are one of these disciples, and more than anything, you want to prove yourself worthy of the “crazy, old artist”. Follow his teachings to expand your studio and paint your preferred subjects (Trees, Animals, Characters, Buildings), all while paying attention to the changing of the seasons in order to make the most harmonious print… the one that will become the work of your lifetime!

The KLASK game board is shaped like a ball field with two deep holes functioning as goals in each end of the field. In the middle of the field, three white magnetic pieces serve as “obstacles” – do NOT attract them to your own gaming piece! Your gaming piece is a black magnet. You control it by holding a large magnet under the board. This magnet is connected to a small magnet placed on the field. The purpose of the game is to push the small, red ball around on the field with your magnet/gaming piece, shoot the ball past the obstacles and your opponent and into the goal hole (Klask). It’s so much fun when your opponent suddenly is covered in white obstacles or you drop your gaming piece into the goal – something which might happen if you get a little too eager!

Lost Cities is a card game in the Kosmos two-player series. The game consists of a single deck of cards of rank 2–10 in 5 different colors with 3 special “handshakes” (“HS” in scoring examples below) in each suit. There is also a board which functions only to hold and organize discarded cards and is largely superfluous. Games last around 15 minutes. This is generally considered a good “couples” game and is often recommended for people with non-gamer partners.

After being stripped of all their possessions, a mage, a warrior, an elf, and a dwarf are forced to go rob the local Magic Maze shopping mall for all the equipment necessary for their next adventure. They agree to map out the labyrinth in its entirety first, then find each individual’s favorite store, and then locate the exit. In order to evade the surveillance of the guards who eyed their arrival suspiciously, all four will pull off their heists simultaneously, then dash to the exit. That’s the plan anyway…but can they pull it off?

Magic Maze is a real-time, cooperative game. Each player can control any hero in order to make that hero perform a very specific action, to which the other players do not have access: Move north, explore a new area, ride an escalator… All this requires rigorous cooperation between the players in order to succeed at moving the heroes prudently. However, you are allowed to communicate only for short periods during the game; the rest of the time, you must play without giving any visual or audio cues to each other. If all of the heroes succeed in leaving the shopping mall in the limited time allotted for the game, each having stolen a very specific item, then everyone wins together.

At the start of the game, you have only three minutes in which to take actions. Hourglass spaces you encounter along the way give you more time. If the sand timer ever completely runs out, all players lose the game: Your loitering has aroused suspicion, and the mall security guards nab you!

1931: Your scientific expedition discovers a new and intriguing mountain range in the middle of the Antarctic polar circle. Under these challenging conditions, the survival of your team will depend on your ability to communicate with each other and to coordinate your efforts to overcome each obstacle — but what you discover on the way to the highest peak will strongly test your mental health. Will you even be able to understand yourself despite the madness that gradually insinuates itself into your mind?

Based on the novel by H. P. Lovecraft, Mountains of Madness is a fully cooperative game with a pinch of real-time gameplay.

Dear students, it’s time for the final exams of the Potions class! The rules are always the same: Take an ingredient marble from the dispenser and watch the others fall. If you connect marbles of the same color, they explode and you can take them, too! Complete your potions using the marbles you collect, and drink them to unleash their magical power. Remember, though, that to win the Student of the Year award, being quick won’t be enough: you’ll also need to brew the most valuable potions in Potion Explosion!

Problem Picnic: Attack of the Ants, courtesy of Kids Table BG

It’s a perfect day for a picnic! The park fills with families, spreading their blankets, and setting out colourful plates loaded with delicious treats.

But there has never been a picnic without uninvited guests … ANTS!!

In Problem Picnic: Attack of the Ants, players are competing ant colonies trying to steal the best plates of food from the picnic blankets. In this 2-4 player, dice-rolling dexterity game, the dice are your ants. Roll them onto the picnic cards, trying to get the most ants onto the best foods. Different custom dice at your disposal represent your industrious Workers, speedy Scouts, and sturdy Soldiers. At the end of the day, the colony that has arranged their stolen plates to best satisfy the whims of the Queen will earn the most points and win the game.

Raiders of the North Sea is set in the central years of the Viking Age. As Viking warriors, players seek to impress the Chieftain by raiding unsuspecting settlements. Players will need to assemble a crew, collect provisions and journey north to plunder gold, iron and livestock. There is glory to be found in battle, even at the hands of the Valkyrie. So gather your warriors, it’s raiding season!

Skyward is a strategy card drafting game of control versus opportunity for 2-4 players.

After generations of turmoil, the four factions have finally put their differences aside to work together for a better tomorrow. As a commitment to this alliance, the world’s first airborne city, named Skyward, is to be built above the intersecting borders of the four realms. Tasked with building this new city, you and other cultural luminaries vie for control by becoming the Warden, and ultimately declared “Founder of Skyward”.

In Skyward, the Warden deals cards from the central deck and splits them into piles however they see fit. Each player chooses a pile, providing them with buildings and resources. However, being the Warden is a double edged sword. While you wield the power of the split, everyone else gets to choose first, leaving you with the remaining pile.

Skyward is played over several rounds. Each round starts with The Split, followed by individual player turns. The goal of the game is to launch a combination of buildings that yield the most Victory Points. The end game is triggered when any player launches their 6th building or the central deck is emptied. Complete the current round as you would normally, then complete one final split. The player with the most Victory Points wins the game.

In recent years, the Sun has become increasingly unstable, to the point where experts claim it could go supernova at any moment. The various inhabitants of the planets in this solar system are launching one last effort to save themselves, which involves building a final Ark to propel a small selection of their people into deep space. This requires a great deal of energy, and in a final ironic twist, the only source of such great energy is the dying star itself. In the process of extracting and transmitting the energy required to save themselves, they will be compounding the instability of the Sun and hastening the end of their worlds.

Sol: Last Days of a Star is a board game for one to five players where each player represents a different planetary effort to transmit as much energy from the Sun back to their Ark so they can to escape the solar system before the Sun explodes!

Stuffed Fables is an unusual adventure game in which players take on the roles of brave stuffies seeking to save the child they love from a scheming, evil mastermind. Make daring melee attacks, leap across conveyor belts, or even steer a racing wagon down a peril-filled hill. The game delivers a thrilling narrative driven by player choices. Players explore a world of wonder and danger, unlocking curious discoveries. The chapters of Stuffed Fables explore the many milestones of a child’s life, creating a memorable tale ideal for families, as well as groups of adults who haven’t forgotten their childlike sense of wonder

THE BEAUTIFUL WILDERNESS
Sometimes you need to get off the beaten path to find a beautiful landscape to paint. Wake up early, hike deep into nature, and find your perfect spot. Some paintings sell for commissions, others you’ll keep for yourself, but you’re always going that extra mile to find inspiration.

OBJECTIVE
Over six days, players gain Renown by hiking to beautiful locations to paint landscapes, which they’ll later sell. Each day, players choose a Planning Card, which allows them to travel through the Wilderness and paint (i.e., pick up Landscape Cards). At day’s end, they can sell paintings to earn Renown (i.e., turn in Landscape Cards to gain Commission cards worth Renown). Players also earn Renown by completing Daily Goals and by possessing Landscape Paintings at game’s end.

Tantrix is a strategy game using painted bakelite hexagons. It was invented in New Zealand, and is clearly derived from the earlier Psyche-paths/Kaliko. Tantrix can be played as solitaire puzzles, ranging from easy to almost impossible, or as a multiplayer strategy game featuring a combination of strategy, luck and skill. Each tile has three tracks on it, in three different colors (out of four colors). Each track starts on one side of the tile and ends on another. The goal of the game is to create the longest line or loop of your chosen color. If you create a closed loop, each tile counts for two points.

Each player has an open hand of six tiles. When it is your turn, you must first play tiles in any spaces that are “required play” (any hole that has at least three tiles bordering it is a required play). After each played tile, you randomly draw a new tile. Once you’ve filled all required spaces, you play one tile in any legal space. After that, you once again need to fill required spaces. To play the game well, you need to create required spaces in smart ways. This way you can both enable yourself to play more tiles during your turn and force your opponent to play tiles that continue your track (remember that your opponent’s hand is open, so try to create required spaces that take advantage of his tiles).